“Spotsylvania School Board member Jennifer Craig-Ford is seeking an opinion from the Virginia attorney general on whether local school boards can require suspicion-less pre-employment drug testing of teachers and other staff with direct student contact,” Fredericksburg Free Press reported. Craig-Ford, who voted with the board majority earlier this month against implementing such testing, has asked local legislators to request formal guidance on four questions involving state law, constitutional limits under the Fourth Amendment and Virginia Constitution, and whether rules differ for new hires or specific employee categories.
The school division already conducts federally required testing for commercial driver’s license bus drivers and suspicion-based testing for other employees; no other Virginia school division currently mandates pre-employment drug screens for classroom staff. Delegates Nicole Cole and Josh Cole said they will send a joint letter to Attorney General Jay Jones seeking the opinion.
